"The superior man is catholic and no partizan. The mean man is a partizan and not catholic." (君子周而不比、小人比而不周。) ─ Confucius, The Analects, 2.XIV, translation by James Legge.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Cardinal Nicholas Cheong on Patriot Thomas An

"Cardinal Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk, South Korea's highest-ranking catholic priest, created controversy with his remark that seemingly supported the Catholic church's posture 100 years ago in its ambiguous relationship with Ahn Jung-geun, a devout Catholic and a Korean independence fighter who gunned down Hirobumi Ito, a Japanese government official who played a prime role in Japan's advance to colonize Korea," begins this report — Cardinal’s Remark on Ahn Creates Controversy. "In his sermon this week, which marks the 100th anniversary of Ahn's patriotic act, Cheong said the church's decision 'to suspend the priesthood of a Western priest for three months for his sympathetic involvement in Ahn's final days before the latter's execution was a 'best decision' to protect the priest.'"

Odd that such a small detail should arouse controversy, given that the overall message of the homily was, in His Eminence's words, regret that "the Korean Catholic Church hadn’t recognized An as a good Catholic," according to this report — Cardinal says ‘Patriot An’ a devoted Catholic

5 Comments:

though I disagree with [the Cardinal's] point and feel it is the Catholic Church in Korea caving in to nationalist sentiments, it seems [from what The Western Confucian wrote] all the more that the Cardinal and the church has been the target of a sectarian smear. (The sectarian smear explained in the post itself.)

It's was -- from what I remember -- the Japanese that asked whether Catholics could participate in Shinto rites. Ironically, the Chinese Rites controversy was settled, when Rome was asked by Japanese. I read that some Western missionaries in Korea did protest when permission of allowing Catholics to participate in Shinto ceremonies was given, since some of these ceremonies did invoke Japanese deities.